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Randwick Super Saturday: Group 1 previews and tips

We love Randwick. (AAP Image/David Moir)
Expert
28th September, 2016
5

It’s Super Saturday at Randwick, Sydney’s feature race day of the spring. Nine black-type races headed by three Group 1s.

The Epsom Handicap holds pride of place over the classic Randwick mile, with a purse of $1,000,000, followed by the Metropolitan over 2400m for the stayers, worth $750,000. Two great Sydney handicaps. These two races are complemented by the Flight Stakes for the three year old fillies.

Chris Waller is shooting for a fourth straight Epsom after taking out the last three with Winx, He’s Your Man and Boban. He has four runners in a typically open affair, with McCreery the strongest chance according to punters.

McCreery is the classic Waller improver, getting beaten on the wet winter tracks a few months ago, but peaking now to be vying for favouritism in a Group 1 handicap. He drops back from 2000m after winning the Kingston Town, the same formula Waller used to win this race with He’s Your Man.

Stablemate Mackintosh is attempting to win the Epsom second up which has seldom been done, and certainly not in the last decade or so. He’s won Group races over 2000m, 2200m and now 1300m, and is six from nine at the race track. Clearly, his ceiling hasn’t been reached.

Waller also has Vanbrugh, who is dropping back from two runs at WFA behind Winx, but hasn’t shown enough to recommend him since 12 months ago. Still, he’ll appreciate the 7.5kg weight drop from recent runs. Torgersen hasn’t won in nine starts in 2016, so will find it hard to do so here.

Hauraki has matured into a solid top-liner now, winning the Tramway first-up and then making Winx beat him in the George Main last start, with a big gap to third. He deserves his place at the top of the markets.

Palentino is up from Melbourne as the other WFA horse in the field, coming off his Makybe Diva Stakes win. He loves a big track mile, with two Group 1 wins at the Flemington 1600m, so Randwick will suit him even if this is his first go clockwise.

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Gai Waterhouse’s Fabrizio will take up the running with 50kg’s stepping up from Benchmark 85 grade, off the back of a four length win. Any rain around won’t harm his chances, and the weight makes him an attractive proposition if you think he can run them ragged.

Le Romain keeps running honest races but finding one better, and meets Hauraki 1.5kg’s better for less than a length defeat in the Tramway a month ago, so that puts him in the conversation.

Dibayani ran third there, next to the others, but hasn’t been seen since as David Hayes looks to space his runs. He is becoming something of a laughing stock due to being a non-winner, given seven top-four finishes since arriving in Australia, all in good races.

Dibayani has had one run at the Randwick mile for a second placing to Winx beaten less than two lengths, and his only other 1600m run in Australia was a third in the Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes. He’s superb each-way value at $41.

Happy Clapper put in a lovely Epsom tune-up in the Bill Ritchie, beaten a length carrying 59kg’s and dropping 4kg’s into this. His Doncaster and Queen Elizabeth placings in the autumn are still fresh in the memory, and do plenty to recommend his chances.

Mighty Lucky was part of that blanket finish with Happy Clapper in the Bill Ritchie, and he also drops in weight. His second-up record gives him claims and he’ll have admirers as one of the outsiders. Sons of John won that race, and thus doesn’t get the weight relief of others, which may put paid to his claims.

Heavens Above is the lone mare in the field, and she’s a good one, with a couple of Group 3 wins this year. She doesn’t know how to run a bad race, and will make the others beat her.

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Selections: 1.Dibayani 2.Hauraki 3.Palentino 4.McCreery

The Metropolitan is hardly the most inspiring Group 1 in Australian racing, but it has a place. Recent winners, post Tawqueet in 2006, don’t usually go onto much and seldom shape the spring.

Chris Waller saddles six of the 13 runners, including favourite Antonio Guiseppe coming into the race off a picket fence of wins coming through the benchmark grades. He’s a versatile animal, but this race has been a graveyard for four year olds, with no winner in that age group in the last nine editions.

Outside of the favourite, there are two main lead-up races – the Hill Stakes and the Newcastle Cup.

Who Shot Thebarman, Storm the Stars, Grand Marshall and Magic Hurricane were all left in Hartnell’s wake in the Hill Stakes, and have all been around long enough that we know what to expect.

Grand Marshall looks over the odds of this quartet if we forgive his last run and think back to his BMW placing in the autumn. Who Shot Thebarman is the best horse and very consistent, but does he have too much weight in this sort of event these days?

Storm the Stars and last year’s winner Magic Hurricane could both salute, with the latter particularly well suited carrying 54.5kg’s here after lumping 60, 61 and 59 in his three runs this prep.

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Sacred Master won the Newcastle Cup last start, defeating Dee I Cee, Sense of Occasion, Amexed and Quartermaster, who all saddle up here. Sacred Master gets the rare distinction of meeting most of them better at the weights despite beating them home, with only Sense of Occasion better off.

Allergic and Junoob ran the quinella in the Colin Stephen last week, always a traditional lead-up. Junoob, racing in phenomenal heart, had also run well in the Newcastle Cup, which ties these formlines together.

Allergic has a sense of timing about him, and will be wondering where his jockey is when he only feels 51.5kg’s on his back.

Sir John Hawkwood is the remaining runner, coming from the Kingston Town, which also ties in the likes of Junoob and Allergic. We know how super consistent and honest he is.

These old battleaxes have all faced each other at different points in time, and their formlines are reasonably intertwined. It looks an even race, and the handicapper can be proud of his work. It might be that a Godolphin quinella can hold out the Waller army.

Selections: 1.Allergic 2.Magic Hurricane 3.Sacred Master 4.Grand Marshal

The Flight Stakes doesn’t usually attract a big field, and this year is no exception, with only seven confirmed runners at this stage. Of the last eight winners, six of them have been $2.80 or less.

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Omei Sword is the heavy odds-on favourite, and her credentials are impeccable with her dominant first-up win in the Silver Shadow followed by a second in the Golden Rose in a crack field. Last year’s Flight Stakes winner Speak Fondly also had those two results.

Yankee Rose raced upside down to lead the Golden Rose field along, and was far from disgraced in sixth given she was first-up and coming off an interrupted and indifferent lead-in. We know that she drips with class and is capable of winning.

The Tea Rose Stakes is the other lead-up race, which was a messy affair in the straight, and you could throw a blanket over the first dozen home. Sezanne was the best of the fillies that are appearing here, and she looks the trifecta play with the main two, and should probably be third favourite instead of the $18 she is.

Selections: 1.Omei Sword 2.Yankee Rose 3.Sezanne 4.Skylight Glow

Around the traps: There is some seriously high class racing at Randwick outside the Group 1’s, with the Roman Consul the highlight ahead of the Premiere Stakes, both at Group 2 level. It’s Somewhat gets the chance to frank the Winx / Hartnell form early in the day with the running of the Craven Plate.

Rose’s Roughie: Anthony Cummings should never be underestimated when he saddles a roughie in black type events, and you can do worse than throw a few dollars on his rank outsider Kanga’s Eye in the Gimcrack to start the day.

He won this race with Gybe at 90-1 back in 2009, and this filly did a thousand things wrong in her trial behind favourite Jorda last week. The Godolphin filly looks incredibly professional, but anything can happen in these early two-year-old races, and Kanga’s Eye is worth a couple of dollars each-way.

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